While I was testing the Olympus PEN EPL-5, I looked around for accessories that would improve its utility for forensic examination. I discovered excellent pairings for the Olympus PEN EPL-5 in the NANOHAx5 lens by Yasuhara and a case for the camera, lens, and accessories by Explorer Case.
The NANOHAx5
The NANOHAx5 lens basically acts like a microscope attached to your camera body. It has its own illumination, with three LED lights mounted around the barrel, and photographs can be taken from 11mm away. This lens can produce an image on the focal plane about as large as the object being photographed.
In order to get this kind of magnification with this kind of accuracy, photographers generally use a bellows lens and often get edge distortion or cropping.
With this lens, I was able to magnify a human hair and have edge-to-edge clarity.
Photographers familiar with shooting at this magnification will know that the trick is to account for chromatic aberration. This is when all of the elements in a lens fail to focus all of the colors at the same point on the plane of the sensor.
Think of the colors of the rainbow shining through a prism. It looks like different color “ghosts” and “auras” in a photo. The NANOHAx5 does an excellent job rendering true and accurate colors.
I got to playing with the NANOHAx5 and discovered some things that blew me away. With the Olympus PEN EPL-5, setting up the photos in live view is pretty standard for still photos. Using the 1080 video function, I focused on my hair sample, running the camera from one end to the other, adjusting the focus, and touching the LCD screen as I filmed. Each screen touch tripped the shutter for a still photo. This feature is most dramatic when the user is filming/photographing three dimensional objects.
The NANOHAx5 is smaller than most standard telephotos, weighs 11 ounces, and in my opinion opens a whole new world in investigations.
Explorer Cases
I used an Explorer Case for the camera, lens, and accessories. Explorer Cases are waterproof, shock-resistant products made of copolymer polypropylene.
They come in 26 different sizes, including one that will definitely work for three-gun shooters. They are mil-spec waterproof, dust and sand proof. They come in black, orange, and green (some cases also come in sand). They’re manufactured in Italy and are deployed all over the world.
I like the unique closure system on these cases and the pick-foam option for the lining. They are easily customizable and are lighter than they look.
